Winter

In war-torn Syria, a baby girl was a victim of the country’s civil war before she was even born.

The newborn is named Amel, or “Hope,” because of what she has survived in her first days of life in Aleppo. She came into this world bearing a scar of war on her forehead.

Her story is a tragic illustration of a human toll of a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and pushed millions of others to flee. As European leaders deal with an influx of migrants and refugees flowing through their borders, Amel’s story provides the explanation for why the mass migration is happening.

An airstrike, allegedly by government forces, on September 18 damaged several homes in a residential area of Aleppo, including the home where a woman named Amira and her children live, witnesses and doctors told CNN.

Amira, who was nine months pregnant, and three of her children were injured in the attack and taken to a nearby hospital, the witnesses said.

When Amira arrived at the hospital, “she looked sad and confused,” Mashfa al Midani Hospital spokesman Abu Louie told CNN.

Her children had minor injuries, but Amira suffered shrapnel wounds on her face and body, the spokesman said.

“She was surrounded by her three wounded kids, and she was bleeding from several parts of her body including her belly,” he said.

Fearing for the survival of the mother and the child in her womb, doctors decided to do an emergency laparotomy.

What the doctors couldn’t have imagined when they delivered the baby was this: a piece of shrapnel lodged in the newborn’s forehead, just above her left eye.

The shrapnel had pierced the mother’s belly and the womb, doctors told CNN. The surgeons removed the shrapnel from the baby’s forehead.

“We don’t know if the baby girl saved her mother from this shrapnel or the mother saved her baby” a doctor told CNN, “but we all know that the devilish regime tried to kill them both.”

Humanitarian crisis in Syria is worsening, ‘horrified’ U.N. official warns

A video of the surgery was posted on Facebook, showing surgeons performing the C-section. Once the baby was born and took her first crying breaths, a doctor can be heard off camera saying, “This is the shrapnel. God willing, the baby is in a good condition.”

The video shows an open wound just above her left eye where the shrapnel was.

“Praise be to God, God is greater than Bashar” the surgeon says, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“She wasn’t even born, and she was targeted,” said Dr. Mohammed Tabbaa, who works directly with the doctors who performed the surgery. “I mean, that’s the situation. I’m hoping she’ll have a better future.”

An anesthesiologist described the terrified, bloody and bruised pregnant woman coming into the operating room.

“Shells are daily thing — they’ve killed women, children and the elderly,” the anesthesiologist said. “This shows the desperation of the situation.”

Hospitals in danger

Though doctors in Aleppo saved the lives of mother and child, they said there is fear that the al-Assad regime will target hospitals and medical personnel, as they have in the past.

Airstrikes on hospitals in Syria have resulted in some medical facilities being moved underground.

Photos obtained by CNN of one underground medical facility in an undisclosed location showed a space that resembles a normal, but very basic, hospital room. The hallways, however, are bare tunnels or tunnels with some flooring and shelves in place.

Tabaa said moving hospital facilities underground costs around half a million dollars, but that the war necessitates it. He said he hopes more hospitals can be moved to safety underground.

“We know there’s atrocities all over,” Tabaa said, “but at least we can reduce the damage.”

source: CNN

We have summarized the text for you. Can you fill in the gaps in the text?

In (1) ……….. Syria a baby girl was born with a (2) ………… in her forehead. An (3)……….. on September 18 damaged several homes in a residential area of Aleppo. Amira the mother of the baby, who was nine months (4)………….., and three of her children were (5) …………in the attack. The doctors delivered the baby by (6) ……….. . Mother and child both (7) ………. the incident. The newborn baby was named (8) ………. which means (9) ……….. . The doctors who delivered the baby girl hope that she will have a better (10) ………. .

Key:

1. war-torn

2. shrapnel

3. airstrike

4. pregnant

5. injured

6. C-section

7. survived

8. Amel

9. Hope

10. future

Baby is born with distinguishable number ’12’ on his forehead.

In ancient civilizations it was the number of labours undertaken by Hercules, the amount of gods who lived on Mount Olympus in Greek mythology, the number of Israeli tribes and the number of the apostles in the Bible and the total signs of the Zodiac.

Now the number 12 has cropped up in another mystifying setting – on a baby’s forehead.

Hanru van Niekerk was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on November 11, 2014, with a strange birthmark on his forehead in the shape of digits ‘1’ and ‘2’.

Some have suggested he was born early — and was actually meant to have arrived the following day on November 12 to correspond with the unusual birthmark.

Doctors have reassured the family of the boy that the markings will gradually fade with time.

Great grandmother Catherine Jooste said that they have embraced the peculiar birthmark, which was a ‘beautiful surprise’.

She said: ‘My youngest daughter was the first one to see it and she said there is a 1 and a 2 on his forehead. 

‘We did not worry about it, his doctor said it will fade as he gets older.’ 

According to medical sources birthmarks come in two main categories, vascular or pigmented.

Vascular birthmarks tend to occur in the head or neck area, being caused by abnormal blood vessels in or under the skin, which can fade after a few months or years.

In comparison,pigmented birthmarks are tan or brown-coloured, caused by a cluster of pigment cells.

Most birthmarks are harmless and don’t need to be treated.

Read the short version of the story again and fill in the gaps with words from the text.

A baby in South Africa was born with a very special birthmark on his …………… (1) in the shape of two  …………… (2) 1 and 2, forming a very …………… (3) number 12. Doctors said that it will gradually …………… (4) as he gets older but the family didn’t worry about it and thought it was a beautiful …………… (5).

Birthmarks have two …………… (6). One occurs in the head or neck …………… (7) and disappears in a few months or years. The other is brown and is caused by pigment ……………. (8) Most of them are …………… (9) anyway and they don’t need to be ……………

Key:

1. forehead

2. digits

3. distinguishable

4. fade

5. surprise

6. categories / types

7. area

8. cells

9. harmless

10. treated

Celeste Nurse was dozing in her hospital bed when three day-old Zephany was kidnapped by a woman disguised as a nurse back in 1997.

Last week, the girl known as South Africa’s Madeleine McCann was reunited with her parents following an extraordinary twist in the hunt for her.

In an interview, Celeste, 37, described how she’d forgiven the woman who had stolen her baby Zephany and credited her with doing ‘a great job’ of raising her.

Zephany loves this woman dearly, she was a good mother to her,’ the mother-of-four said.

‘What she did was very wrong, they’ve been living a lie for the last 17 years, but I forgave her some time ago.’

‘Undoubtedly we will meet, and I will thank her for taking care of my daughter. Zephany has had a good life with her – my daughter is beautiful, inside and out, she’s kind and clever – they did a great job.’

The story of how Zephany came to be reunited with her biological family has all the elements of a Hollywood film.

For nearly 18 years the teenager grew up only a few streets from the parents who never lost hope of finding her, in a run-down suburb of Cape Town.

‘I always had this feeling that Zephany was very close by,’ Celeste recalled.

In January, Celeste’s 13-year-old daughter Cassidy started high school and began to talk about an older girl she’d met ‘who looks like us’ and, despite the age difference, had become a very close friend.

‘She said she felt confused, she had no idea why she felt so attracted towards this girl. On a daily basis, she waited for Cassidy at the school gate, hugged her. I thought, you guys resemble each other like you’re bird of a feather. My daughter called Zephany “tee tee”, that’s the name for an older sister and she called Cassidy, “my baby girl” It was amazing.’ – said Morne, the father. ‘I saw this girl and immediately had a burning sensation in my chest. It was a feeling of confusion, connection, love, attraction, everything in one.’

The electrical sales rep described how he then carried out his own secret investigation into his daughter’s new best friend, looking for proof that she was his stolen child.

He watched her at the school gate, and photographed her for Celeste who recognized her at once.

‘When he sent me the photo I burst into tears, she looked exactly like Cassidy. She had the same face, ear lobes, nose, she was the same. I said ‘this is my daughter’, Celeste recalled.

He scanned the girl’s facebook page to check her date of birth, and for pictures of her growing up.

He copied a photograph of the mother who was raising Zephany and sent it to a witness from the hospital who, more than 17 years before, could still remember the ‘nurse’ who had carried Zephany away as Celeste slept.

‘My witness came back straight away and said ‘this is the lady’,’ Morne said.

The 37-year-old father of four then went to the police and ten days ago DNA tests were finally carried out, revealing Zephany was indeed their missing daughter and her kidnapper was arrested.

Since then Zephany has met her biological family three times.

‘When I hugged her for the first time, I whispered in her ear ‘I knew from day one you were mine’,’ Morne said, in a voice cracked with emotion.

Celeste smiles, ‘When I saw her for the first time I saw myself. I thought “that’s my twin sitting there”. When I held her, I just burst into tears. Zephany cried, she didn’t know what was going to happen, for her it’s quite a lot to take in.’

Despite only spending a few hours with her biological parents, Zephany is already calling them ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’.

And although she is very attached to the woman she thought of as her mother, she told Celeste: ‘The last 17 years have been a lie.’

Known by the name given to her by the woman who raised her, which cannot be reported, Zephany has chosen to keep her name.

Tomorrow, the 50 year old kidnapper is due to appear in court for a second time – she has been in police custody for a week.

It is understood the woman, who cannot be identified, had suffered a stillbirth shortly before snatching Zephany, whom she was able to breastfeed and pass off as her own, never confessing the truth to a soul – not even her own husband.

Morne recognised the man who had raised his daughter when he saw him in court last week.

‘Apparently, he had no idea she wasn’t his,’ Morne said. ‘The forgiveness is there from me, but I have nothing to say to them.’

The kidnapper and her husband raised Zephany in a tiny terraced house in litter-strewn street in an area blighted by unemployment, drugs and gangs.

Unlike many of her friends who have dropped out of school Zephany was encouraged to stick with her education and studied diligently in the bedroom she has to herself.

The woman she has known as her mother had no other children.

Friends and neighbours of the woman have expressed shock at the news and universely praised her raising of the girl, who was her ‘only child’.

Zephany will be 18 next month and can make her own choices about where she lives – but her new-found siblings Cassidy, sister Micah, 9, and eight-year-old brother Joshua are impatient to have her home.

Celeste can remember the events surrounding the theft of her three day old baby vividly. She was lying in bed, holding Zephany in her arms and feeling groggy with painkillers after a Cesarean section.

‘I remember that as I was drifting off to sleep, there was a woman dressed as a nurse nearby. I was woken up a while later by another nurse who said, “Where’s your baby?’.’

The bassinet next to the bed was empty except for a yellow blanket.

‘I ran from the bed, we went up and down the corridors. I was frantic, panicking.’

Morne admits that to begin with he blamed Celeste for their daughter’s disappearance.

‘I put all the blame on her – I kept asking Celeste, ‘why couldn’t you just have kept your eyes open for five minutes?’.

‘I was full of anger, I don’t wish that feeling on my worst enemies. But after the anger subsided all the pain came through and I felt as though I didn’t want to live any more.’

When Cassidy was born four years after Zephany’s disappearance, Morne described how she was ‘his pain away child’.

‘She took all that pain away,’ he said. ‘And now she was the one to have also brought Zephany back to us as well.’ ‘The connection between the two girls was just there from the start,’ he added.

Celeste said: ‘Once we found out that she was Zephany, Cassidy jumped on her and said “I knew all along you were my sister” and they couldn’t stop chatting. They are in love with one another. My son also loves her dearly, he said to Zephany “I’ve missed you”.’

Celeste said she hoped the return of Zephany would give other families of missing children hope.

Despite years of false leads, extortion attempts and no genuine sightings, Celeste and Morne never gave up hope of finding their daughter.

Every year they hosted a large birthday party, with cakes and goodie bags for 100 or more children, to celebrate Zephany’s life, who they were convinced was still alive.

Celeste said: ‘Every year the parties gave us faith and hope that she was still there. We would celebrate not just for her, but for all the abducted children.

‘I never doubted that Zephany would come back to us one day, we never lost hope. Her death didn’t occur to us ever.

‘I keep thinking how many times we must have been in the same shop, or she must have read in the newspaper about herself and the birthday parties we held for her every year.’

How this extraordinary story will end, nobody can predict.

‘I want what she wants – whatever she thinks is best for her, will be fine by us,’ Celeste said with a shrug.

‘We don’t want to put any pressure on her. We feel she belongs to us, with us, but it’s whatever she decides. All we can offer her is love, love and more love.’ 

Here are 10 things babies can teach us.

We look towards the elderly for life advice. Sure, they have a great deal of it, but babies can impart a lot of wisdom as well.

Here are 10 things babies can teach us.

Number 10. Live in the moment. Grownups have a terrible habit of living either in the past or the future. Babies, on the other hand, worry only about the present. Their commitment to the moment at hand, even if it’s just spent throwing squishy blocks around, serves as a reminder that now is when life is actually happening.

Number 9. Laugh a lot. There are certainly times to be serious, but chances are they’re not occurring 24-7. If you’re dealing with the adult equivalent of a dirty diaper, go ahead and frown. But, if life puts on a funny hat andpretends it’s a circus monkey, go with the good times. 

Number 8. Express yourself. If you’re mad, sad, or otherwise upset, let it out. Sure, sitting in the middle of the toy aisle at Walmart screaming at the top of your lungs won’t get you far, but careful communication may. If people don’t know how you’re feeling, they can’t help make it better.

Number 7. Get Active. Next time you’re in the middle of a Netflix binge and have to hit pause repeatedly because the baby won’t stay in one place, you may consider joining them. Baby bonding and exercise, what’s not to like.

Number 6. Stay curious. Licking frogs and sticking fingers in light sockets isn’t recommended for little or big people. However, making an effort to discover new things and learn more about the workings of the world around you is. Don’t even remember where to start? Local libraries are always a good place for such journeys to begin.

Number 5. Learn a language. This will benefit you both, particularly if you practice together. You can pick up a new and highly beneficial skill while the little one gets aboost in brain development. 

Number 4. Be more open. Babies make friends with just about everybody they meet. Adults, not so much. Next time someone asks if you’d like to grab a cup of coffee, don’tscramble for an excuse, just say yes. 

Number 3. Eat when you’re hungry. The clock on the wall doesn’t know a lot about you, so it shouldn’t be in charge of your diet. Pay attention to your body’s cues. They could help you discern the difference between a donut eaten because of actual starvation versus one downed out of boredom, frustration, or just because it’s there. 

Number 2. Sleep when you’re sleepy. Napping doesn’t make you weak or lazy, but it does make you less fatigued, more alert, and not as likely to mess something up. When the situation allows, treat yourself to the extra z’s. 

Number 1. Keep practicing. Babies eventually get the hang of walking because they try it over and over again, no matter how disastrous the results have been. Most skills worth having take time to develop, let alone master. Consider it an investment in your future.

What do you think we can learn from babies?

source: GeoBeats

A British mother gave birth on a New York street after she tried to hail a cab – only to see another woman steal her ride.

Polly McCourt, 39, went into labour and tried to flag down a taxi outside her Manhattan apartment at the junction of 68^th Street and Third Avenue with the help of her doorman. She said: ‘He was trying desperately to hail a cab and a lady walked out five metres in front of him and hailed a cab and got into it. I went: “That’s my cab, I want that cab!”’ Her baby’s head was showing and Mrs McCourt, originally from Black Bourton in Oxfordshire, had to give birth on the pavement with help from passers-by and her doorman.

Her husband, Cian McCourt, 40, was reportedly stuck in traffic when he found out she was in labour and arrived just after she gave birth to their healthy daughter. The scene was caught on camera by a passing news crew, capturing the moment the 3350g newborn was successfully delivered. The pair were kept warm with coats and scarves until an ambulance arrived to take them to Lennox Hill Hospital. Mrs McCourt named her girl Ila Isabella McCourt, the middle name honouring a woman who helped her through the ordeal.

source: www.metro.co.uk, skynews

to hail a cab – taxit leinteni
labour – vajúdás
junction – kereszteződés
doorman – portás
pavement – járda
passer-by – járókelő
to be stuck in traffic – dugóban elakadni
scene – jelenet
news crew – hír forgatócsoport
newborn – újszülött
to deliver a baby – baba megszületésében segédkezni
middle name – második keresztnév
ordeal – megpróbáltatás

Fill in the gaps with the words in the table. There is one extra.

1. Kate found a purse full of money lying on the ……………….. outside her house.

2. I’m sorry I’m late, I ……………….. .

3. Take a left turn at the next ……………….. .

4. I wanted to ……………….. but Kate offered to take me home.

5. Only a few ……………….. stopped to help my grandmother when she fell.

answers: 1-pavement 2-was stuck in traffic 3-junction 4-hail a cab 5-passers-by

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A mum-to-be spent £3,000 on pink baby accessories after being told she was expecting a girl – only to give birth to a boy.

Sarah Sharples and her husband Lee splurged out on £500 worth of clothes, £1,000 in the nursery and £900 on a pram after medical staff told her she was carrying a girl, but just weeks later she popped out bouncing baby Joseph.

Sarah said: "I couldn’t understand it when the midwife said it was a boy. All our scans had confirmed it was a girl and I had everything prepared in pink. We had picked her name, Lily-Mae, and had the room decorated with her name stencilled across the pink feature wall. We even had personalised blankets as gifts from family and friends. We looked at each other and couldn’t believe that Lily-Mae was actually a boy."

However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the couple as they’d bought most of the items from supermarket chain ASDA, so they were able to return them.

Lee said: "There was so much to change and friends and family have been so helpful. We had bought most of the clothes from ASDA and they were fantastic and let us exchange everything. But we still have a lot of pink things that we can’t return and so we’re just keeping them and hoping, at some stage, we have a girl."

mum-to-be – leendő anyuka
accessory – kiegészítő
to expect a girl/boy – kislányt/kisfiút várni
to give birth to – életet adni valakinek
to splurge out on – pénzt szórni valamire
… worth of – … értékű valami
nursery – gyerekszoba/babaszoba
pram – babakocsi
medical staff – orvoscsapat
to carry a girl/boy– kislánnyal/kisfiúval várandósnak lenni
to pop out – szülni (itt: kipottyantani stílusértékkel : )
bouncing – életvidám
midwife – szülésznő
scan – ultrahang
to confirm – visszaigazolni, megerősíteni
to pick something – kiválasztani valamit
to have something decorated – kidekoráltatni valamit
to stencil – stencilezni, betűrajzoló sablonnal írni
personalised – személyre szóló
blanket – takaró
doom and gloom – világvége érzés
supermarket chain – szupermarket lánc
to return – visszavinni valamit
helpful – segítőkész
to let somebody do something – hagyni, hogy valaki csináljon valamit
to exchange – kicserélni
at some stage – egy bizonyos ponton

Egy 14-hónapos kisbaba egy 1962-es Austin Healey Sprite autót vásárolt az Ebay-en 225 dollárért az apja mobiltelefonjáról annak tudta nélkül.

Sorella Stoute az 1962-es Austin Healey Sprite-ot 225 dollárért vette egy online aukciós weboldalon és az apja, Paul Stoute még csak nem is sejtette, hogy mi történt, amíg meg nem kapta a weboldal sikeres vásárlását gratuláló email-ét.

A KOIN 6 News-nak nyilatkozva, azt mondta: „Úgy döntött, hogy megnyitja az eBay app-et és elkezdett összevissza kattintgatni, majd az egyik dolog a másikhoz vezetett és most van egy kocsink.”

Annak ellenére, hogy Paul először pánikba esett, végül úgy döntött, hogy megtartja a gépkocsit, amit most a csecsemő nagyszüleinél tárolnak.

Egy utas, aki egy Örményországba tartó repülőgép fedélzetén hozta világra gyermekét, azután a légikisasszony után nevezte el gyermekét, aki a szülésnél segített neki. A helyi média szerint, a repülőgép éppen elhagyta Oroszországot amikor a kislány megszületett. Állítólag, a nő Haszmik-nak nevezte el lányát a szülésnél segítkező légikisasszony után, akit Haszmik Ghevondyan-nak hívnak. A repülő két órára volt a leszállástól amikor a kis Haszmik úgy döntött, hogy csatlakozik a fedélzeten. Ghevondyan kisasszony azt mondta, hogy észrevette, hogy a 31 éves utasnak, Armina Babayan-nak, szülési fájdalmai vannak, és ennek megfelelően cselekedett. “Az egész személyzet segített a szülésnél,” mondta a légikisasszony.  Az örmény Armavia járat Jerevánban szállt le. Mind az anya, mind a gyermeke jól vannak.

By combining fashion and practicality, manufacturer Huggies says parents only have to bother with one bottom layer for their children, instead of putting clothes over the nappies. But the company runs the risk of foisting fashion on youngsters and making them scrutinise their appearance at an ever younger age. It has also baffled many with its bizarre advertising campaign which shows onlookers going slack-jawed at the sight of a toddler clad in the denim diaper.

As the young boy walks through a street wearing nothing but the nappy and a white shirt, women peer over the sunglasses and a stunned man accidentally lets go of some balloons before the dubious slogan comes up on screen: “The coolest you’ll look pooping your pants”. The jean nappies are modified disposable Huggies Little Movers and cost £8 for 29, in three different sizes.

They are not actually denim but designed to look like jeans and are currently available in the US where they have been a huge success. A Huggies spokesman said: “Jeans have always been a Mommy fashion must-have, but now it’s time for their little ones to steal the style. Denim has always been a summer style staple, and the Huggies Jeans Diapers are no exception – they are a unique, fun and stylish way to make your little one the coolest and cutest around.”

Jean nappies were first launched in Israel in 2007 and have been a success in more than 20 countries around the world including Russia, South Korea, Mexico and Singapore.

Daily Mail

Vocabulary
denim – pamutvászon, munkásruha
nappy – pelenka
leakage – (át)szivárgás
scrutinise – alaposan megvizsgál
slack-jawed – szájtátva
diaper – pelenka (US)
toddler – tipegő kisgyerek
staple – árucikk